American says Republic Airways bankruptcy won’t affect Eagle flights

If you fly on American Eagle, Delta Connection or United Express, there is a good chance you have been on a plane operated by Republic Airways, which just filed for bankruptcy protection.

The three leading U.S. airlines say, however, that the bankruptcy will not disrupt service for passengers.

Republic Airways Holdings, whose subsidiaries operate more than 1,000 flights a day, filed for Chapter 11 protection from creditors on Thursday, blaming a pilot shortage. But it said it would continue flying as usual.

Republic is one of several carriers that have contracts with American, Delta and United to operate regional flights using smaller planes. Passengers buy tickets from the big airlines, who pay regional carriers to operate flights with smaller planes — typically 50 to 100 seats.

In the last dozen years, airline passengers have grown accustomed to flying on carriers that are operating under bankruptcy protection. American, Delta and United all went through bankruptcy.

American spokesman Casey Norton said Friday that the Fort Worth-based airline did not expect Republic’s bankruptcy to affect American Eagle operations. He said American “will work with them as things develop to make sure we take care of our customers.”

As of the third quarter, Republic operated 110 of the 550 aircraft flown by 10 smaller carriers that American uses to fly American Eagle routes. It accounted for 16 percent of the 3,400 daily regional flights by American, the airline said.

Spokesmen for Delta and United also said the bankruptcy was not expected to affect their schedules. Indianapolis-based Republic has been profitable — it earned $13.6 million in the first nine months of 2015 — but far less so than the major airlines.

Although it landed a new three-year contract with its pilots last year, the company still had to ground aircraft just as it was trying to renegotiate agreements with the larger carriers and rework terms of aircraft leases. While it was working on the labor contract, Republic was losing as many as 40 pilots a month, while adding about 30, according to Duane Pfennigwerth, an Evercore ISI analyst.

This story was originally published February 26, 2016 at 10:14 AM with the headline "American says Republic Airways bankruptcy won’t affect Eagle flights."